I bought a Pro license from a cheap key site, and using Virtual Box, or KVM / QEMU, I've never had an issue. I will admit that if you're in a VM, I've never seen it pick up the host key for auto-activate. It might be possible, I haven't researched it, but just buy a cheap key, and I've never had problem getting it activated.

What is your defence? All your points are suggesting that Windows is a terrible, inexcusable, pile of excrement, but instead of using professional grade software you should learn to take the Microsoft abuse?

I have never, not once, on any computer, seen Linux suspend, and become unbootable. In the last 3+ years, I have seen dozens of cases where Windows will suspend itself, and you need to use the Installer to wake Windows back up because the drive will drop from the UEFI.

Windows is such a low-grade OS, that you need to install a Linux VM on it, to do your work. The WSL is literally a workaround for Windows not being a proper OS. Think about that! You have to install Linux on Windows, to use Windows, and Microsoft doesn't hide this fact, they sell it. Since that's the case, why not just cut out the tumour?

I can agree with that :)

Why wouldn't a large company be affected by this? Should we bring up CrowdStrike? That fix was truly idiotic, on the largest scales.

ReiserFS was removed in 6.13, and deprecated before that, so not really relevant. It's easy to recover a GRUB set up, and you don't need silly workarounds and magical packages from Microsoft and their friends. Even then, in the last 5 years, have you seen that happen? If so, how often?

This is not a minor bug, and luckily no one at my company has been hit by it, but, how can you risk using Windows, when these are the issues you run in to?

People joke about Linux being unstable, and having usability issues, when was the last time a major Linux distribution completely bleeped home directory access? I've never seen it, and I've been using Linux since 1999, maybe 1998. Let's be clear, you could do through incompetence, but that's of your own destruction, and if you did, you could easily get it back.

With Windows, not only do things break, the solutions are nonsense, or in the best cases, idiotic. I have a recurring issue where virtualization will just stop working on Windows, and it's not a UEFI issue. There is a long-standing issue where Windows can suspend, but then can't wake up. To get Windows to "wake-up", you need an installer so you can enter recovery mode, and tell the boot manager, TO BOOT.

Windows doesn't know how to BOOT, which tracks across most Microsoft products, they can't do the most basic functions of their use case. How can a professional, honestly, seriously, non-fraudulently, use Windows? If you can afford the massive amounts of downtime, you're not a professional! If you can afford the constantly "roll-the-dice" methodology on updates, you're not a professional! If you can honestly tell me that an OS which can't boot, is a suitable product for a workplace, don't, you're lying. Windows is not for professionals, it's not even for hobbies at this point.

I have it running in VM, on top of Fedora because in the best case that's the only safe place to have it, it's not ready for bare metal. Windows is for testing, and nothing else, and that's all I'll ever use it for because it's not an operating system, it's AdWare, bloated with ShareWare, and CrapWare, that only seeks to violate and harm it user base, when it works, which isn't often.

As promised: https://drive.proton.me/urls/4...

If you think that is what obesity looks like, you'll need to change your incredibly incorrect assumption. That was taken this morning, the 7th of March 2026, at 9:30am. I also have a picture from the gym, but that's not needed.

Context of my size, my should width is: ~61cm, my chest is ~145cm, my upper arm is ~53cm, my forearm is ~33cm (and I just measured that), my mid-area is: ~122cm, my lower body: upper leg ~70cm lower leg is ~46cm.

This is what a 184cm tall man looks like, It's clear that I look that way, I included a photo, taken this morning, and did those measurements right now, the tape is around my neck as I type this.

Being on TRT does not make you a "roid freak", TRT is a monitored testosterone replacement, requiring documents and blood work. It's careful monitored and regulated, and every man should have his T levels tested, If you haven't, respectfully, I recommend it because most men have low T, and can benefit from TRT. Out of 10 men who got tested from my friend group, 1 had normal levels, 9 were low.

I never made the claim I have some crazy insane pure muscle, you made that claim. I said I have a lot of muscle mass

Which I do, but you'd call any proof fake, so why bother? I'm literally going to gym after this pointless reply.

You're using BMI, so you will not be taken seriously, BMI only works on a large population, it's impossible to classify a single point using it, and you know that. In fact, they don't use BMI alone as a classifier, the standard now required multiple points of reference, so simply being heavy doesn't make one obese, since that was highly inaccurate, and as you're demonstrating, commonly misapplied.

I'm advocating for reasonably sized people to fit in seats, not landwhales who the Kool-Aid man makes fats jokes about. There's a big difference between someone who is obese, using a useful definition, which BMI isn't, and someone who is built. I'm not getting Ozempic, I don't need it, Ozempic is for people who gave up, not for people who have control over their lives. Ozempic's logo should be a fork full of pasta, since everyone I know on it, is careless, lazy, and refuses to realize the real problem. They won't work out, they won't eat right, they won't take responsibility, and want medication for a will power problem.

I won't continue this thread unless you make useful talking points, so in any case have a lovely weekend.

That's a from the bottom of my post, the concept of having to age verify at the OS level is terrible, but if it's going to be forced, finding a reasonably private, less terrible solution is warranted. If we use the top statement

It's literally just ignoring how bad an idea this is fundamentally so I could discuss a possible solution. What I was trying to say is that instead of whining about how invasive this is because it is, and I mention that at the bottom, let's explore what might be a solution. Realistically, we can throw a hissy fit all we want, but governments don't care, and you can try to fight this in court, which will take years, and you might win, but wouldn't it be a good idea to have some clue what to try to solve this problem in a way that still verifies age, but also maintains privacy?

I literally acknowledged that, I was just providing a hypothetical solution. If the hammer is coming down, having a plan is better then assuming they'll back down.

Let's ignore the blanket statement that this is a bad idea, and think about how one might go about solving this problem. Let's also realize there are ways that you could make this robust, not unhackable, just robust.

You install the OS and go to make the user account, some agent will ask for your ID, which could come in various forms, but it just needs to be government approved. The agent will spin up two enclaves, one that's offline and isolated, and another to connect to a government run database of hashed patterns. The hashed patterns will be downloaded, these represent a driver's license or passport with no information on it, just a pattern. The other enclave will ask for the ID from the user, scan it and store it completely offline. The agent will then offline the pattern enclave, and transmit the DB to the ID enclave. The ID enclave will scan and pull the information off the ID, and do a pattern match. If the pattern is sound, the information will be scanned, and those might have patterns to confirm against, and verified for age, sex, location, and whatever else you need.

Once you know all components are sound, the ID information is destroyed, and the offline enclaves is securely wiped. Once it's wiped, and confirmed destroyed, the other enclave comes back online, and it writes a verified stamp or hash, or Merkel tree, whatever, into the OS. At this point, you've successfully verified age, and if you try to run around, you'll always hit the same wall.

It is perfect, no, should it be, no. Does this entire concept still run a fowl of reasonable digital liberty and privacy, it's a digital Epstein island. However, instead of making a fuss, lets find a possible solution.

Weight on its own is a terrible classifier, Ronnie at his peak, and I'll use Yankee units, was over 300lb at 5'11", Jay Cutter was similar. Eddie Hall whose 6'3" is anywhere from 315lb to over 400lb, Brian Shaw is 6'8" and varies better 400lb to 500lb. If you look at other strongmen the numbers track, and I'm not suggesting I'm as fit as Brian or Eddie, 286lb at 6'1", is not unrealistic for a person who strength trains and is on TRT.

I have 17 doctors treating me, along with two physiotherapists, and one sports doctor (whose not counted in the 17). Regardless as to why they're treating me, since it's not relevant to this discussion, and outside of it, my health is fine. I get more blood tests and hormone test done then I think anyone should, so I actually know I'm in reasonable health.

Except for the new narrow seats, I can put the arm rests down, and don't need a seatbelt extender. It's tight, but I barely fit in the seat, and my point is the seat should just be larger, even if you go based off height alone, anyone over 6' is going to run into cramped condition.

Granted, you do not have to take my word for it, so I'll take a picture at the gym tomorrow morning, and outside of that, what do you really want me to do, that isn't invasive? I won't send medical records, and you didn't ask to be fair, so outside a picture, I don't think there's a way for me to prove my size. Alternatively, and I don't know where you live, if you're in Simcoe county in Ontario, Canada, we could work out together, that's a serious offer.

Absolutely, but it should still be a rule, across all airlines. Flying is just terrible, I actually hate the entire experience because of medical issues, but it's required, so can we at least not be civil about it? 9X% of people are, but that other % just really put the cherry on the shit cake.

You can't use BMI on a single person, it can only apply to a large population, I'm assuming you know that. I've been on TRT for years, and I've been strength training ~10-hours a week, for the last 7-years, pair those together, and I have a ton of muscle mass. That alone is not an issue, I just look like a reasonably tall and fit person. I've said this a few times in this series of threads, but I'm willing to demonstrate my claim, I can take a picture, it's not an issue, or, even better, we can work out :). I'm not opposed to backing that up.

There is a massive difference between what I look like, and what someone with actual obesity looks like. I don't put my belt on with a boomerang, and spill out into everyone else's area, I'm 1/2 way between a body builder and strongman, in terms of appearance, I'll take a picture tonight or tomorrow, depending on how busy the gym is, likely tomorrow at 6am.

I know you don't need papers, but my issue is people fake claim service animals and emotional support animals all the time. I've flown a few times when someone will bring a large dog on board, who doesn't have a seat because the flight is fully booked, but where the animal is clearly not a service animal, it's completely out of control.

One occurrence, the dog vomited and took a shit right next to my seat, it was wonderful, and her dog was NOT a trained a service animal. When I pointed that out to the flight staff, they snapped at me, and didn't even make the woman who owned the dog clean it up. Her attitude was complete self-entitlement, and she honestly wanted a free seat for the dog. If the dog was a properly trained service dog, no issue, I'm all for that, but this dog wasn't, and it's easy to tell. A trained service dog is well-behaved, and clearly doing a job, the difference is night and day.